It was a normal Sunday afternoon at Kuala Lumpur's Central Market buskers' area, but the ' lepak ' crowd hanging around were in for a bit of a surprise when a group of young people started singing songs of freedom.

The singers were part of a group called the Hunger Strike Committee to Abolish the Internal Security Act, which was there to raise public awareness about the ISA, a law which allows detention without trial.

The group comprised around 20 representatives of local non-governmental organisations and friends of the 10 reformasi activists detained under the Act since April 10.

Among the songs they sang was an adapted version of Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the wind".

Spokesperson for the group, Khaliah Shaik Mohamad then took over the microphone from the singers to introduce the detainees and explain about the ISA.

She said the ISA has darkened the lives of the detainees, decreased their dignity and curtailed freedom of expression.

"The Act also encourages torture by detaining people without trial," she told the crowd, which grew bigger after 20 minutes.

Postcards and leaflets on the ISA were distributed to the crowd. Some passers-by and onlookers willingly signed the postcards which were addressed to the United Nations human rights commissioner, calling for the abolishment of the Act.

Dog and cat cultures

Abdul Aziz Ismail, brother of one of the detainees, Badaruddin Ismail - a social activist affectionately called Pak Din - then addressed the crowd.

"I know my brother very well," he said. "He is one of the most patient persons around. He is not capable of being militant."

Abdul Aziz said one could witness several cultures these days, such as Budaya Anjing (the dog culture) and budaya kucing (the cat culture) which explained why people were afraid to voice out their opinions.

"The first type (dog culture) scares people away from getting involved. They will say you are wrong even when you are right and there is nothing you can do about it," he said.

"The second, which is the cat culture, is the culture of fear, in which people are afraid to say anything even when they know something is wrong," he added.

Abdul Aziz said the government belonged to the first group, whom he considered as worse off than the drug addicts in rehabilitation camps.

Ministers and intellectuals were in the second group, who simply allowed wrong things to continue happening, he said.

Police allow event to proceed

The event proceeded peacefully for one hour, with a marked absence of politicians from the opposition who would usually be present during such occasions.

Though two policemen came to query one of the organisers on whether the group had a police permit to gather there, when it was explained to them what the activities entailed, they allowed the event to go on, on the condition that so long as there were no complaints against them.

Film director-cum- malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais and Pak Din were the first and last to be detained, on April 10 and 26, respectively, when police launched a crackdown against the activists.

The other eight detained are Keadilan leaders Tian Chua and Dr Badrul Amin Baharom; party Youth leaders Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor, Saari Sungib, N Gobalakrishnan, Abdul Ghani Haroon and Lokman Noor Adam and webmaster of Free Anwar Campaign website (Freeanwar.com) Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin.